tize and to hoard the acquired treasures of expression: to.drive from our languages and books, by precautionary anathemas, those intrusive upstart barbarisms, which the just severity of rational criticism would refuse to inrol in the civic list of the new denizens of our language; and to affix the stamp of currency on so much only of the mintage of the brain, as was ob tained from the pure and precious metal of Greek and Roman antiquity, or coined from native ore in the legal die of domestic analogy.

Certain it is that, of the several dictionaries hitherto reputed classical in Europe, not one contains above two-thirds of the words freely circulating in the language of which it treats. The Vocabolario degli Academici della Crusca is fallen into the. yellow leaf, and is become rather a glossary of those declining terms, which give a mellow tint to the immortal poetry and the mortal prose of the Medicean age, than a collection of the green and living words of fashion and of use.

The Dictionnaire de l'Academie Française, like the epopee of its projector Chapelain, is only not sunken into sufficient obscurity to be screened from contempt. A total ignorance of the theory of language and of the art of definition; a servile deference for what its authors mistook for usage, and what was in fact the provincialism of the metropolis; an affection for low traditional phrases; and a pedantic rage for regulating trifles; dishonourably distinguish this boasted pillar of French literature. It has long been superseded by the private work of Richelet; which has, in its turn, become too scanty a repository. for the multiplying nomenclature of his country.

The Dictionary of Dr. Samuel Johnson should next be mentioned. His predecessor Bailey had displayed a more radical knowlege of etymology. Johnson's ignorance of the philosophy of language was the misfortune of his time, more than the fault of his own negligence: but his loose and pedantic style of definition, his passion for the needless subdivision of meanings, his misarrangement of significations, (so as frequently to place the metaphorical before the proper,) his inele gant taste for neoteric importation, (which was exclusively confined to Latin polysyllables,) his partial estimate of the value of authorities, and his innumerable omissions, combine to shew the imperfection of all human labor.

The Diccionario de la Lengua Castellana, published in 1783 by the Academy of Madrid, has the merit of being drawn up with conciseness and selected with judgment; and, as its definitions are often inserted in Latin, it is very convenient for strangers to the Spanish language. Its neglect of etymology, however, destroys its claim to rank among enterprises of the

higher class. Besides its words of Latin origin, the Spanish contains a multitude of terms of Biscayan and of Arabic derivation; and it is important to the ascertainment of many speculative questions, to be able to discriminate between them:but these academicians do not teach us to discern which ideas their nation has derived from its primæval inhabitants, which from its Roman, and which from its Moorish conquerors. To Larramenda and Haouy, to Erpenius and Golius, we must still recur for a laborious separation of this mingled oratory into its elemental dialects.

The Versuch eines grammatisch-kritischen Wörterbuchs of Adelung comes nearer to the idea of a perfect dictionary, than any ather effort of individual diligence and modern culture. An acute theory of the origin of speech, which guides the erudition of his etymological researches to the sensible idea latent in the parent-word of the most abstract and metaphorical ramifications of thought-an historical familiarity with the migrations and shifting civilization of the tribes whose confluent jargons have supplied the reservoirs of the German tongueand a comprehensive knowlege of the nature of polished style and of the fine literature of his country-only leave room for the wish that he had elevated himself yet higher above the prejudices of ceremonious grammarians, and had discussed the whole doctrine of phraseology with the liberal insight of Gregory Sharpe, of Schultens, and of Tooke. His excellent grammar resembles that of our Wallis: but it sternly resists innovation, with a frown which the practice of his countrymen has not heeded..

How far the author of the Preliminary Discourse, which we have now to notice, will rival or surpass his predecessors, cannot easily be foreseen. He undertakes to compile a new Dic tionary of the French language, such as the improved state of its resources require, and such as a literate age has a right to expect. His prospectus is written with exquisite elegance, and treats at large of the metaphysics of language: but it is with Condillac, with Rousseau, and with Buffon, that our author is chiefly conversant. With those who have investigated the rise of speech, in the surer track of etymological record, he is totally unacquainted: we no where meet with the weighty names of Herder or Monboddo, no where with examples from the ruder languages in proof of the doctrinal positions advanced. We are fatigued, on the contrary, with much verbiage concerning the soul and its faculties and with tasteless, because misplaced, digressions concerning the theory of virtue, the utility of religion, the doctrine of necessity, and the subversion of despotism. This obvious predilection for a metaphysical cast

of

of inquiry would lead us, however, to expect as much accuracy of definition as is compatible with the neglect of etymo logy, and an extensive acquaintance with the modern vocabulary of science, and with the prolific resources of a revo lutionized rhetoric. As the study of derivation is much less important to the systematic improvement of the southern than of the northern languages, we see no reason for despairing that the author will perform his vast and laborious task in a finished and instructive manner. Yet we should more have approved his deferring to solicit subscriptions, until he had submitted to public criticism a specimen from the letter A.

To this Prospectus is annexed a dissertation on the prize. question proposed in 1783 by the Academy of Berlin: "What are the causes of the universality of the French language? Does it merit this preference? Is it likely to preserve it?" This dissertation displays, in our opinion, more national va nity than just views: it was the political power and the personal magnificence of Louis XIV., not the merit of the language, nor even of its writers, which rendered it so general, The truly popular prose writers of the French belong to the next age.

ART. XXIV. Projet d'une Langue universelle, &c. i. e. The Scheme of an universal Language, presented to the Convention by Citizen DELORMEL. 8vo. pp. 50. Paris, Imported by Dulau and

Co. London.

wo very interesting tracts on language were noticed by us in vol. xix. p. 512, N. S. and vol. xxi. p. 511; a project now invites our attention which is much bolder than the improvement of any particular, or the comparison of every extant language, the project of superceding them all by one universal tongue.

The author begins by observing that no language can become universal by its own intrinsic merit; that it must owe this advantage to the interference of public authorities, and to their concert in its behalf; and that he aspires to obtain from the French Convention the official protection of his scheme,

The alphabet is first discussed. Those letters which, like e, express two or three different sounds, are rejected; so are those which, like x, are mere contractions, and represent two letters separately extant: to the letters employed in two dis tinct shapes, as and s, a distinct office is assigned; and by these means, and a new use of the supernumerary letters, an alphabet is contrived, consisting of 30 characters already familiar to the eye.

APP. REV. VOL. XXIV.

The

The common distribution of language into eight parts of speech is adopted; and a confused sketch is given of a manner in which it might become practicable to translate the nouns now in use into this universal dialect. Changes on words are to be rung with all the regularity of a multiplication-table. Z is to indicate animal substance, T vegetable matter, and N artificial productions; so that every word may be analyzed into its constituent ideas, with nearly as little trouble as we guess an ænigma. In all matters pertaining to religion, a G is to occur; and in all matters pertaining to government, a K. The mighty difference between a theist, a jew, and a christ ian, is to be expressed by the syllables ga, ge, gi; and the common quality of royalists and republicans is to be expressed by ko, ku.

The formative syllables which accomplish the inflections of adjectives and verbs, in our sesquipedalian languages, are all reduced to a single letter; and a verb is conjugated through its whole nine tenses by alternately annexing the members of the alphabet. The pronouns consist of one vowel each: the interjections, of vowels with the aspirate prefixed. The whole scheme possesses a degree of abbreviation which precludes any curtailment by short-hand writers.

The chief use of these systems, in the present state of science, is to excite the attention to the remediable defects of living language; and to direct the spirit of improvement towards those changes, which may approximate the art of communicating ideas to the regular methiod and rapid process in which they are essentially generated.

ART. XXV. Pasigraphie, &c. i. e. Pasigraphy, or First Elements of the new Artificial-Science [Art-Science] of writing and printing in a Language which may be read and understood in every other Language, without Translation. Invented and arranged by J. *** DE M***, formerly Major in the Imperial Infantry. First Edition, corresponding with the German Impression. 4to. Two Parts. pp. 130. From the l'asigraphic Printing-office at Paris, 1797.

THE

*

HE alliance between spoken and written language does not appear to have been coeval with the art of writing. The Mexicans had a method of communicating intelligence, by depicting the objects concerning which they wished to convey information; and the Chinese still employ flourishes, which can be read by a person who is ignorant of their language, in

Imported by De Boffe, London, price l. 1s. sewed.

the

the words of his own. "Fairies use flowers for their characters," says the poet; and so do lovers in the East, according to Lady Mary, Wortley Montagu. It is evident, then, that our ideas can be associated directly with visible signs, instead of those audible signs called words, which are the common medium of association. Bishop Wilkins contrived eighty characters, by means of which he designed to express all the ideas of the human mind with unequivocal brevity. Mr. Northmore, with greater simplicity, has suggested the use of arithmetical figures; and he has observed that, as the date of the year or the deficiency of the revenue, when stated in numerals, can be read by every European nation in its own idiom, so it would be possible to describe in numbers a crown, a metaphor, a church, a wen, an order of nobility, a cloud, a camel, or a whale. The great difficulty seems to consist in contriving some natural nucleus of association, which should facilitate the recollection of these numerical signs, and indelibly imprint them on the memory.,

This is attempted by the author of the very ingenious volume before us. He has contrived twelve characters, which he calls the pasigraphic gamut; and for which, not having the proper types, we shall substitute the first twelve letters of the Greek alphabet. These are to be grouped in words of three, of four, and of five letters. Connective and expletive particles of frequent recurrence are to be of the first class; objects and ideas daily noticed in society, of the second; and terms of art, science, and recondite inquiry, of the third. A dot over a letter indicates that it is to be read twice. The characters a B, which are not printed in the same horizontal plane with the other letters, but a little above or a little below, never form a portion of the pasigraphic word, but serve to describe its inflections.

The author subdivides his dictionary into three parts; which, without much departure from his technical dialect, may be called the index, the vocabulary, and the lexicon. In the first are arranged the minute, in the second the current, and in the third the extraordinary words of the French language. These are stationed in twelve columns, and each column is subdivided into duodecimal paragraphs. Contiguity of meaning confers the claim to contiguity of place. Over each column is stationed one letter of the pasigraphic alphabet, against each paragraph a second letter, and before each word a third letter. By these means, three letters particularize any given word. A fourth indicates that the word must be sought in the vocabulary; and a fifth, that it must be sought in the lexicon. By a systematic management of the changes, an astonishing number of words

Q92

become